Member Appreciation Week - Day 7 - Owner Appreciation
Today we celebrate our esteemed owner of Forum Promotion @Cam!
@Cumulus will be posting some things that the staff has sent for presentation, Cameron, and I hope you are delighted. Until that gets posted, here are some interview questions for members to read and they can use this thread to appreciate our owner!
- How did you feel when you first took over FP?
I was ecstatic. I had expressed interest in buying FP from Arthur (
@MasterA) at a couple different points in time, and even talked to Sean (
@Nerdie) about it even long before Arthur came around. No one was ever ready to make a deal. Then one day I got a PM from Arthur asking me if I was still interested. This was at least a year after I had expressed interest to him and been turned away, so this PM was a huge surprise out of the blue. Ultimately, I made an offer, and we got a deal done. I was on vacation for a week in Gulf Shores, AL when all of this went down, so the timing was perfect. Had all the time in the world to have a proper transition process.
- What were you goals when you first bought FP? same type of question: When your purchased FP did you have a goal and was that goal achieved yet?
Our last President road all the way to the White House with the "Make America Great Again" slogan. Even almost got a second term. Without going into political beliefs, I'd say that's the mindset I had going in. Let's make FP great again. I had seen different things occur over the years that I didn't agree with, and I wanted to make some changes that I believed would be for the better.
At the same time, it served as a reunion tour of sorts. We had all of these former staff members return all at the same time. It was seen as "the community taking back FP" because "one of them" was calling the shots. As someone that had been on the staff team for Fergal/Sean/Arthur, I was around for so much that went on. At the end of the day, I have regrets on these things. Some of these individuals were no longer on the staff team because they no longer had the drive or the desire to be an asset on the staff team. For the most part, the efforts of these individuals were short lived.
Ultimately, new blood is what we've always needed. The individuals that were on our staff team a decade ago may have an itch to make a comeback every once in a while, but we'll only be going in circles if we continue to recycle the same staff members. You have to sprinkle in some new folks in with the old. That's how we'll make progress.
- What kind of beer do you like best?
Yikes. When did I become the town drunk? I'd say Redd's has been my go to ever since I was in high school. When you're new to drinking alcohol and not wanting that overwhelming yuck flavor, Redd's is a safe fruity option. It's like Angry Orchard but in beer form. My favorite flavors are the ones that I can never find anymore. Apple is the only flavor I consistently see nowadays, and it's the most boring. I'd love the opportunity to grab peach, blueberry, strawberry, ginger apple, etc. It really makes my day when I find a different flavor of Redd's somewhere. They're so hard to find around here now.
- Who did you buy it from & why?
I was always buying a 12 pack of Redd's (apple flavor) at my local Walmart. Seemed to be the only place that had the 12 pack, and it was like $2 cheaper than buying the 6 pack anywhere else around here. Unfortunately, they reset their beer plano recently and now they don't even have a spot for the 12 packs. Very irritating. I hate paying $10 for a 6 pack. Drives me insane.
- What has changed since then?
Confused by this question. Referring to when I bought FP? So much has changed for me personally. When I bought FP, I had recently graduated college. I was working a crappy job traveling and doing planogram resets for PL Marketing. A few months later, I got what I would consider my adult degree job when I became a project manager for Walmart. Did that for close to two years, but was laid off during COVID. Things got dicey a little bit. Applied and interviewed for jobs all over the place. Ended up landing at CVS with a lesser role that I was hesitant to take. Now recently became a Store Manager. Also, in that time period, I've purchased a house, a new car, and drank a ton of beer. I'd just say I've become a mini-adult. I was a child when I joined FP. Now I'm 25 and paying bills. Time flies.
As for FP, a lot has changed, but we remain consistent in keeping FP's doors open. Members come, members go. Staff members come, staff members go. There's always something changing. We just have to keep pushing forward.
- Where do see FP in 5 years?
I'll be 30 then, so hopefully I'll be sharing photos of my kid(s) on here? I don't know.
@Malcolm and
@ChrisGrigg will both be old as shit, but I'm sure they'll be around working on maintaining our community. Chris will probably be hosting FP on USHost247's first super computer, and Malcolm will be busy trying to convert us to XenForo 4.0. Regardless, we'll be here. There's no doubt about that.
- What has been the biggest disappointment about owning FP?
I spent way too much time worrying about what everyone else thought of me, especially in regards to my peers on the staff team back in the day. It became abundantly clear that it is impossible to make everyone happy, and sometimes you'll have to make tough decisions. It comes with the territory. You just have to always be thinking about what's best for FP, and not what's best for this person or that person.
- Looking back at past FP what things worked back then that don't work now?
Forums were a different world back then. There wasn't a care in the world about being mobile friendly. You could have different FP ad services all over the forum and not worry about how the forum loaded on a mobile device. All of these ad services would a mess today. We can also mention our review service. There was plenty of members using that service at one point in time, but it became clear that there just wasn't a demand for it anymore. That's where we have to listen to our community and see what they want, and what they're interested in spending their FP$. Services like Bubble Ads or our review service just weren't it anymore.
- Do you put FP ownership on your resume?
My current resume no longer has it, but I did have FP and my other sites listed on my resume at one point. In the past, I've written a super detailed resume that had all sorts of information about me. As I've applied to more and more jobs, I've realized that employers aren't reading that. They want a resume that's short and sweet. One page is plenty.
- Which part of FP is your favorite?
Rather than selecting a specific "part," I'll just go with an event. SBM. It's a blast every year, and there's always drama attached to it. FP is always popping in March.
😛
- Are you content with the way FP is going?
Things can always be better, but I'm happy with where we are today. I love the efforts I am seeing from my staff team each day. We have an amazing group of individuals who are looking to positively impact this community. There are so many different things going on. Lots of major changes potentially on the way. I am content with today, but I have no doubt that tomorrow will be better.
😛
- Do you have ideas on how to have FP be more active?
We've discussed so many ideas, especially over the last year or two. I believe the future involves us focusing more on offering services to our content creators. You have individuals on platforms like YouTube and Tik Tok that are needing places to promote. I think we could offer something to these people. We just have to figure out how to implement that.
